This is beautiful music beautifully played. A concentrated
and penetrating collection of German cantatas from the high
Baroque, it should be snapped up without reservation by anyone
with even the slightest interest in the origins and development
of northern European sacred music. The playing, direction
and singing are uniformly clear, vibrant, balanced and highly
communicative.

In 1710/11 Telemann performed at the Eisenach court what
was his first annual cycle of compositions for each Sunday
and feast day in the church year, the Geistliches Singen
und Spielen – to texts by Erdmann Neumeister. From this Drei
sind, die da zuegen im Himmel treats
thebelief in the triune nature of God making full
use of musically dramatic three-fold polyphonic textures
and drawing on solo singing executed admirably by Norin,
Kobow and Abele. The strings play particularly richly throughout
this cantata and enhance the mellowness and barely suppressed
emotional charge.

Ich
hatte viel Bekümmernis for
the second Sunday in Lent is from Telemann’s third cycle
of six years later. Again Telemann explores contrast – this
time the contrasting emotions of sorrow and consolation,
as Jesus heals a girl possessed by the devil. The music
moves dynamically in step with the resolution of the Biblical
story. Dissonance and unison in solo recitative and choral
parts are used to convey this progression. But the technique
is also that of the newly emerging concerto style. For
excellence in restrained expressiveness, listen to Lena
Susanne Norin’s bell-like articulation and phrasing with
a dignity and weight appropriate to the Bach cantatas.

Wie
liegt die Stadt so wüste is
to be heard on the tenth Sunday after Trinity. It too has
a dramatic tone – the destruction of Jerusalem for the
city’s refusal to understand how peace is achieved and
kept. Again, sadness predominates. Telemann’s command of
sombreness without maudlin is superb here – and Max’s forces
paint the shadows and frowns with exactly the right strokes.
It’s not tone painting; but there is certainly tonal and
rhythmic depth.

Er kam, lobsingt ihm is the longest cantata
on this superb collection. It was also recorded almost
ten years earlier
and employs different soloists.
It’s a setting of an ode for the Ascension by Daniel Schiebeler
(who also provided words for works of C.P.E. Bach), written
when the poet was still under twenty years old – not, somehow,
how we typically expect that austere, ‘serious’ and doctrinally
staid texts come about. But then Er kam, lobsingt ihm is
far from dry. Its sublime depiction of the elevated theme
is treated with matching exuberance by Telemann. He asserts
the primacy of the words in good Protestant fashion… the
orchestra is made to sing, and supports with the vocal texture
in an almost experimental way; the result is an exhilarating
gem indeed.

By
the time you reach this cantata on the disc, you’ll likely
be wishing the selection chosen were not so … select. The
appeal and commitment which pervade Telemann’s cantatas are
so sensitively and subtly conveyed by Max and his players
that they do leave you wanting more. There is a rigorous
stylishness to the playing which nevertheless carries both
movement and excitement verging on passion in places – the
right places.

The
recording is clear, crisp and resonant, although a little
ungenerous at a few minutes short of an hour. The liner notes – if
in font that’s a little small and hard to read – are comprehensive
and informative. The texts are reproduced in full with English
translations; there are brief sketches (together with one
or two somewhat unflattering photographs) of the performers.
The impression with which one comes away time and again after
listening to these very human and approachable sonatas is
of unpretentious, expert playing designed to present a definitely
under-appreciated aspect of Telemann’s work for what it is – varied,
inventive, unhistrionic yet colourful. This is a CD to treasure.

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